Cinema's First Nasty Women: Phil for Short

Even though they were made over a hundred years ago, the films in this collection speak vividly to contemporary feminist politics. To be a #NastyWoman means refusing to be silenced while embracing the messiness of gender and engaging as an energetic participant in feminist political life. The term was popularized when U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump called opposing candidate Hilary Clinton a "nasty woman" at a televised debate in 2016, but then quickly went viral, resonating with the furious ethos of 21st-century feminist movements. Featuring rarely seen silent films about feminist protest, anarchic slapstick mayhem, and evocative gender play. Cinema's First Nasty Women includes 99 European and American silent films, produced from 1896 to 1926, sourced from 13 international film archives, and spotlighting slapstick comediennes and cross-dressing women of the silent screen. The collection's curators have chosen to highlight films that have remained inaccessible, unpreserved, unscored, untranslated, and widely unseen for too long.

This is one of four different themed short film packages that will play at The Grand. Here are the dates for the entire series:

Cinema's First Nasty Women: Doubles and Dopplegangers (Sept. 27)

Cinema's First Nasty Women: Queens of Destruction (Oct. 14)

Cinema's First Nasty Women: Phil for Short (Nov. 1)

Cinema's First Nasty Women: Gender Adventures (Nov. 13)